Forum Announcement, Click Here to Read More From EA_Cade.
The Sims: A Virtual Food Destination
simgirl1010
Posts: 35,866 Member
How The Sims Became the Internet’s Most Exciting Place to Eat
The 22-year-old life-simulation video game has evolved into a world where players can farm, forage, cook and learn about the many ways people experience food.
In the last year, Kayla Sims began raising her own cows and chickens. She did a bit of traveling, trying dishes like bhel puri, tuna maki rolls, beef yakisoba and feijoada for the first time. She even did some cooking; one day, she made a crown roast and baked a birthday cake shaped like a hamburger.
But she didn’t need a farm or an airline ticket or a stove — just The Sims, the long-running video game that allows players to create characters, called Sims, and build a virtual life around them, from the houses they live in to the clothes they wear to the jobs they work.
For Ms. Sims (yes, that’s her birth name), one of the most enjoyable parts of the game has been the chance to learn more about cooking, farming, foraging and cuisines from across the world — all from the comfort of her desk in Oviedo, Fla., where she streams herself playing The Sims on YouTube and Twitch under the username lilsimsie.
“There’s just no way you could have experienced all of those things in your lifetime,” said Ms. Sims, 22. But by playing The Sims, “you learn about a lot of other foods that you’ve never seen before. And I think that everyone probably has that experience.”
Since its debut in February 2000, The Sims has become one of the most successful PC video game franchises in history, with more than $5 billion in sales as of 2019, according to its publisher, Electronic Arts. Millions of players around the world log in each day to create Sims avatars and watch their lives play out in vivid fashion. The game’s popularity has only grown throughout the pandemic; Simmers, as fans call themselves, racked up 1.2 billion hours of play in 2021.
Part of that new and, for some, renewed interest may stem from a simple need to fight off boredom. But much of the game’s appeal can be chalked up to players’ ability to create an increasingly exacting vision of how their Sims live, dress and eat.
In early versions of the game, food was used simply to satisfy Hunger, one of a handful of basic needs that every character has, or to add an element of exoticism when Sims traveled to new locales. But The Sims 4, released by the game developer Maxis in 2014, expanded the depth and realism of how players can interact with food.
“I think The Sims 4 was really where we made this conscious effort to recognize that food is more than a place,” said Lyndsay Pearson, a vice president on the creative side of The Sims, and a Maxis employee since 2002. (Electronic Arts acquired Maxis in 1997.)
Many Simmers cite the “City Living” expansion pack, a 2016 upgrade, as a major turning point for the game — it made food something to explore and learn about. Players could take their Sims to food stands, where they could not only encounter foods like pork adobo, tagine and goi cuon, but also learn to tolerate spicy foods, use chopsticks properly and, ultimately, gain the ability to make those foods at home.
Today, Sims can own and operate a restaurant or cafe, design menus and hire and fire employees. They can work their way up from assistant dishwasher (earning 15 Simoleons per hour) to celebrity chef (410 Simoleons) in the Culinary career track, or become professional food critics.
They can be vegetarian or lactose intolerant, and most Sims children go through a picky-eating phase. Sims with the Foodie personality trait, one of nearly 60 characteristics that players can choose when they create a Sim, pride themselves on eating good food, and can watch cooking shows for inspiration. They can invite friends over for a wienie roast in their backyard fire pit, order delivery from a Sims service called Zoomers, forage for rare ingredients in nearby Granite Falls or join with family members to prepare a meal.
All told, there are more than 300 dishes that Sims can try or cook across more than a dozen game upgrades.
New foods are often introduced around themes. “Sims 4: Cottage Living,” released in July, added dishes inspired by the English countryside, including bangers and mash, beef Wellington, crumpets and Yorkshire pudding. (The developers even went so far as to use “aubergine,” the British term for eggplant.)
Sims are able to can their own food; raise chickens, cows and llamas; and order groceries — though a Simple Living option allows players to cook only with what they have on hand, like produce and herbs from the garden. They cannot, however, slaughter their own livestock.
Loel Phelps, a design director for The Sims, said his team uses consultants, research and input from employees with diverse backgrounds to decide which foods, and elements of cooking and eating, best fit the spirit of the game.
“The Sims is about real, lived experiences, so once we have a theme or setting, I like to reach out to those around me or explore food trends on Instagram and TikTok,” Mr. Phelps wrote in an email. “What are their favorite iconic dishes? What do people eat for breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner in that environment? Why and how do they eat those foods, and do we have the right tools in a virtual kitchen to prepare, serve and eat them?”
Copywriters then create extensive descriptions of those foods, explaining how they’re prepared, as well as the real-world cultures where they originated. Want to learn all about pho, nigiri, choripán? The Sims can be your guide.
Since The Sims might be the first place that some players encounter these foods, it’s important that they’re provided with as accurate and precise a description of the dishes as possible, said Ms. Pearson, the Sims vice president, adding that the game developers would never describe lumpia or banh mi as “just a roll or a sandwich.”
“These mean different things,” she said. “They are made differently. And I think that it’s a way for us to also recognize that variety that exists in the world and say, ‘Yep, we see you.’”
Like reality, the world of The Sims is imperfect. Some of the foods are so pixelated that they aren’t all that appetizing. (“Some of it just looks nasty,” Ms. Sims said.) And most of the dishes that players cook most often — like spaghetti, pancakes, clam chowder and tuna casserole — still reflect a white American palate.
As a result, many players, both in the United States and abroad, don’t see their foodways reflected in the game, especially dishes that originated in South Asia or Africa.
“I’d like to see stuff I grew up eating,” said Micah Henson, 26, a doctoral candidate in applied mathematics at the University of Washington who grew up in the South, cooking alongside her mother and grandmother. “Like collard greens and baked mac and cheese and candied yams and black-eyed peas, especially like a New Year’s black-eyed-peas tradition.”
A spokeswoman for Maxis, which continues to operate as a subsidiary of Electronic Arts, said that adding new features, items and cuisines “with the goal of making all of our players of all cultures and backgrounds feel represented in the game” remains a priority. On Wednesday, for instance, dishes inspired by Brazilian Carnival and the Lunar New Year will be added to the game free of charge.
But the process is slow-going, and if there’s a food item that doesn’t exist in the game, there’s always the option to create it yourself — a practice known as “modding.” Dr. MunMun Chattopadhyay, 36, a physician in Kolkata, India, has made a name for herself by creating high-quality custom food content for The Sims.
On her website, players can download pixelated versions of shrimp and grits, cornbread, nasi lemak, rhubarb tart and fried tofu, as well as foods she grew up eating, like tandoori chicken, biryani, idli and malai kofta. Last year, Maxis officially added a few food items designed by Dr. Chattopadhyay to the game to mark its 21st anniversary.
But the doctor’s motivation for modding goes beyond a desire for formal recognition. Like most Sims players, she is seeking an escape from daily life — and satisfying her own fascination with food along the way.
“In reality, I’m just walking and walking and walking all day long, and then I have a toddler and now I’m pregnant again, so it’s very hectic,” she said. “It’s just kind of a wish fulfillment. What I cannot do in real life, I’m doing it in The Sims.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/07/dining/sims-custom-food.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytfood
The 22-year-old life-simulation video game has evolved into a world where players can farm, forage, cook and learn about the many ways people experience food.
In the last year, Kayla Sims began raising her own cows and chickens. She did a bit of traveling, trying dishes like bhel puri, tuna maki rolls, beef yakisoba and feijoada for the first time. She even did some cooking; one day, she made a crown roast and baked a birthday cake shaped like a hamburger.
But she didn’t need a farm or an airline ticket or a stove — just The Sims, the long-running video game that allows players to create characters, called Sims, and build a virtual life around them, from the houses they live in to the clothes they wear to the jobs they work.
For Ms. Sims (yes, that’s her birth name), one of the most enjoyable parts of the game has been the chance to learn more about cooking, farming, foraging and cuisines from across the world — all from the comfort of her desk in Oviedo, Fla., where she streams herself playing The Sims on YouTube and Twitch under the username lilsimsie.
“There’s just no way you could have experienced all of those things in your lifetime,” said Ms. Sims, 22. But by playing The Sims, “you learn about a lot of other foods that you’ve never seen before. And I think that everyone probably has that experience.”
Since its debut in February 2000, The Sims has become one of the most successful PC video game franchises in history, with more than $5 billion in sales as of 2019, according to its publisher, Electronic Arts. Millions of players around the world log in each day to create Sims avatars and watch their lives play out in vivid fashion. The game’s popularity has only grown throughout the pandemic; Simmers, as fans call themselves, racked up 1.2 billion hours of play in 2021.
Part of that new and, for some, renewed interest may stem from a simple need to fight off boredom. But much of the game’s appeal can be chalked up to players’ ability to create an increasingly exacting vision of how their Sims live, dress and eat.
In early versions of the game, food was used simply to satisfy Hunger, one of a handful of basic needs that every character has, or to add an element of exoticism when Sims traveled to new locales. But The Sims 4, released by the game developer Maxis in 2014, expanded the depth and realism of how players can interact with food.
“I think The Sims 4 was really where we made this conscious effort to recognize that food is more than a place,” said Lyndsay Pearson, a vice president on the creative side of The Sims, and a Maxis employee since 2002. (Electronic Arts acquired Maxis in 1997.)
Many Simmers cite the “City Living” expansion pack, a 2016 upgrade, as a major turning point for the game — it made food something to explore and learn about. Players could take their Sims to food stands, where they could not only encounter foods like pork adobo, tagine and goi cuon, but also learn to tolerate spicy foods, use chopsticks properly and, ultimately, gain the ability to make those foods at home.
Today, Sims can own and operate a restaurant or cafe, design menus and hire and fire employees. They can work their way up from assistant dishwasher (earning 15 Simoleons per hour) to celebrity chef (410 Simoleons) in the Culinary career track, or become professional food critics.
They can be vegetarian or lactose intolerant, and most Sims children go through a picky-eating phase. Sims with the Foodie personality trait, one of nearly 60 characteristics that players can choose when they create a Sim, pride themselves on eating good food, and can watch cooking shows for inspiration. They can invite friends over for a wienie roast in their backyard fire pit, order delivery from a Sims service called Zoomers, forage for rare ingredients in nearby Granite Falls or join with family members to prepare a meal.
All told, there are more than 300 dishes that Sims can try or cook across more than a dozen game upgrades.
New foods are often introduced around themes. “Sims 4: Cottage Living,” released in July, added dishes inspired by the English countryside, including bangers and mash, beef Wellington, crumpets and Yorkshire pudding. (The developers even went so far as to use “aubergine,” the British term for eggplant.)
Sims are able to can their own food; raise chickens, cows and llamas; and order groceries — though a Simple Living option allows players to cook only with what they have on hand, like produce and herbs from the garden. They cannot, however, slaughter their own livestock.
Loel Phelps, a design director for The Sims, said his team uses consultants, research and input from employees with diverse backgrounds to decide which foods, and elements of cooking and eating, best fit the spirit of the game.
“The Sims is about real, lived experiences, so once we have a theme or setting, I like to reach out to those around me or explore food trends on Instagram and TikTok,” Mr. Phelps wrote in an email. “What are their favorite iconic dishes? What do people eat for breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner in that environment? Why and how do they eat those foods, and do we have the right tools in a virtual kitchen to prepare, serve and eat them?”
Copywriters then create extensive descriptions of those foods, explaining how they’re prepared, as well as the real-world cultures where they originated. Want to learn all about pho, nigiri, choripán? The Sims can be your guide.
Since The Sims might be the first place that some players encounter these foods, it’s important that they’re provided with as accurate and precise a description of the dishes as possible, said Ms. Pearson, the Sims vice president, adding that the game developers would never describe lumpia or banh mi as “just a roll or a sandwich.”
“These mean different things,” she said. “They are made differently. And I think that it’s a way for us to also recognize that variety that exists in the world and say, ‘Yep, we see you.’”
Like reality, the world of The Sims is imperfect. Some of the foods are so pixelated that they aren’t all that appetizing. (“Some of it just looks nasty,” Ms. Sims said.) And most of the dishes that players cook most often — like spaghetti, pancakes, clam chowder and tuna casserole — still reflect a white American palate.
As a result, many players, both in the United States and abroad, don’t see their foodways reflected in the game, especially dishes that originated in South Asia or Africa.
“I’d like to see stuff I grew up eating,” said Micah Henson, 26, a doctoral candidate in applied mathematics at the University of Washington who grew up in the South, cooking alongside her mother and grandmother. “Like collard greens and baked mac and cheese and candied yams and black-eyed peas, especially like a New Year’s black-eyed-peas tradition.”
A spokeswoman for Maxis, which continues to operate as a subsidiary of Electronic Arts, said that adding new features, items and cuisines “with the goal of making all of our players of all cultures and backgrounds feel represented in the game” remains a priority. On Wednesday, for instance, dishes inspired by Brazilian Carnival and the Lunar New Year will be added to the game free of charge.
But the process is slow-going, and if there’s a food item that doesn’t exist in the game, there’s always the option to create it yourself — a practice known as “modding.” Dr. MunMun Chattopadhyay, 36, a physician in Kolkata, India, has made a name for herself by creating high-quality custom food content for The Sims.
On her website, players can download pixelated versions of shrimp and grits, cornbread, nasi lemak, rhubarb tart and fried tofu, as well as foods she grew up eating, like tandoori chicken, biryani, idli and malai kofta. Last year, Maxis officially added a few food items designed by Dr. Chattopadhyay to the game to mark its 21st anniversary.
But the doctor’s motivation for modding goes beyond a desire for formal recognition. Like most Sims players, she is seeking an escape from daily life — and satisfying her own fascination with food along the way.
“In reality, I’m just walking and walking and walking all day long, and then I have a toddler and now I’m pregnant again, so it’s very hectic,” she said. “It’s just kind of a wish fulfillment. What I cannot do in real life, I’m doing it in The Sims.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/07/dining/sims-custom-food.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytfood
Post edited by simgirl1010 on
8
Comments
they really be marketing the game as food game now? really??
I mean we can't even have our sims be chef in their own restaurant so whats the point
Oh well good for them I guess
sadly my vampire sims don't really care how many food options they add id rather have some actual gameplay
and with this the new pack surely is starting to sound more like food pack than romance pack
🏡 Gallery 📖 Stories 🌍 World Project 🥔 MOD/CC Free
Why can't we just appreciate that there's an article in The New York Times about a game we all love? Marketing wasn't my first impression at all.
My favorite food that they added recently was probably the food from Snowy Escape and letting us choose to use chopsticks. But I do hope that they will try and optimize how the recipes are loading when clicking on the fridge because they are loading pretty slow now after the food from Cottage Living.
Ahhh well, I guess if you're a vampire Sim what do you care for the food
The recipes they are talking about are the free ones. They are not for the wedding pack. I hope not. I want lots of new cakes with the wedding pack.
They could add variety to vampire food by enabling them to drink from cows and llamas.
I mean obviously we could
just consider me crumpy old lady in the corner
who ordered couple dancing and dragons and got a hot dog with a ribbon on it
im just crumpy in advance cause i don't wanna be disappointed too bad tomorrow
and timing of this article just sounds rather sus to not be marketing branding thing aiming to get us hyped about food in preparation of more food in game
🏡 Gallery 📖 Stories 🌍 World Project 🥔 MOD/CC Free
That is an excellent idea!! Why shouldn't the Sims who don't want to feed on people be able to feed on the cow or llama? Or the chickens? I would not have wanted them to feed on pets, but I'm okay with them feeding on farm animals. The farm animals from Cottage Living get turned into slabs of white and red meat anyways.
I'm sorry. Was coming back to delete but you'd already responded. You're perfectly entitled to your opinions. I honestly didn't see it as a marketing ploy.
Maybe a chicken could feed a little vampire, but big vampires need big animals, so they could drink enough blood without killing them. Maybe cows could not give any milk on the day they were bitten by a vampire.
It's okay really
may the foodies be blessed and happy with the food and i continue to be crumpy in the corner theres room for all of us
🏡 Gallery 📖 Stories 🌍 World Project 🥔 MOD/CC Free
Yes, good idea, the cow would not give milk if it got bit and maybe get a collapsing animation. I'm not sure if a chicken could survive a Vampire feeding on it. I feel like it would be a tasty snack for the Vampires, but more fulfilling than a plasma pack. If it did then maybe they would be too scared to lay eggs or they could hatch a new type of Vampire chicken. A Vampire rooster that killed the fox and ate it instead ...
definitely hoping that if we get werewolves they'll be able to have cottage living animals as snack
and id love for aliens to be able to snatch a cow on their saucer
what comes to vampires i like the option of drinking until animal gets dizzy but sure vampire animals could be fun
evil vampire chicken would be hilarious
🏡 Gallery 📖 Stories 🌍 World Project 🥔 MOD/CC Free
They can drink from dogs and cats by using the surgery machine to create plasma packs
Ohh, yes. I'd love to see red beans and rice too.
Thank you for posting this article @simgirl1010
Food is one of the small things in The Sims I really love. I'm not an adventurous eater IRL, but the game has encouraged me to try new things. Just last year I tried Indian food for the first time because of the dishes in game.
I grew up in a German-descendant household in a very rural area with mostly german/dutch ancestry and where the only spices used were salt and pepper...and all the food was boring (though I still do love just your basic meat and potatoes at times).
A whole new world of tastes opened up to me once I got my drivers license and could drive to the city to actually try other cuisines. I have yet to find a culture whose foods I do not like and I'm always amazed at just how much variety there is in flavors.
The Winters family Tree --- My Mods
But congrats to the sims!!😁
@Simmingal Brilliant new word "crumpy".
EDIT: heh, amazing what happens when you search for a term in the article. I have answered my own question.
I really loved it, so much that whenever possible, I like to treat myself to some Indian food now.
All the new foods inspired me, too! It gave me an idea for a future Sim I'd want to play. They would be a food critic and travel to different locations and try new foods and record videos using the drone or write travel guides (Sims can write travel guides if they have level 5 Selvadoradian Culture skill). Maybe one week they would be in Mt. Komorebi, another week Selvadorada, then after Windenburg sampling the food from the local bars.
oops sorry english is not my first language and I get my letters mixed all the time
I meant grumpy*
though I suppose I could also be covered in crumbs suspiciously while being grumpy about food
(and man I hope i got that word right)
🏡 Gallery 📖 Stories 🌍 World Project 🥔 MOD/CC Free